I've been covering the business of news, information and entertainment in one form or another for more than 10 years. In February 2014, I moved to San Francisco to cover the tech beat. My primary focus is social media and digital media, but I'm interested in other aspects, including but not limited to the sharing economy, lifehacking, fitness & sports tech and the evolving culture of the Bay Area. In past incarnations I've worked at AOL, Conde Nast Portfolio, Radar and WWD. Circle me on Google+, follow me on Twitter or send me tips or ideas at jbercovici@forbes.com.

Are Things Finally Looking Up For Yahoo?

If Scott Thompson’s five-month tenure as CEO of Yahoo is remembered at all, it will most likely be as a punch line. But could it be that Thompson, pushed out last week after getting caught with a false degree on his resume, was exactly the CEO Yahoo needed at this particular moment?

Among Thompson’s few accomplishments in his brief time on the job was laying off 2,000 people, or 14% of its workforce. While that’s not the kind of thing that wins a CEO much affection, it was, most agree, a necessary measure.

His departure seems to have triggered an even more overdue and salutary development: a deal to unwind its 40% stake in China’s Alibaba Group. The complicated transaction will allow the internet giant to buy back billions of dollars worth of its stock and generate another half-billion in royalties connected to Yahoo China. Unlocking the value tied up in the Alibaba stake has been the chief hobbyhorse of Dan Loeb, the activist investor who brought about Thompson’s ouster.

None of this means that Yahoo’s out of the woods, of course — not remotely. Its share of the all-important display advertising market just keeps falling, from 14% in 2010 to 10.8% last year, according to eMarketer. It’s still fundamentally a portal in a world that’s evolved beyond portals.

But Yahoo, slimmed down and with a war chest freshly stocked with Alibaba money, is in position to make a move in a way it hasn’t been for years. What it needs now, more than anything, is a strategic focus. Getting one might be as simple as making the appointment of interim CEO Ross Levinsohn permanent.

With his background in digital media, Levinsohn is likely to throw more resources at those areas where Yahoo has seen success lately, like its partnership with ABC News. Levinsohn’s record as an executive is far from unblemished, and betting big on premium digital content could be an expensive bust.

But any CEO who tries to make Yahoo about one idea can’t help but be an improvement over the last few, who have all clung to the notion that it could continue to compete on multiple fronts. Thompson paid lip service to the idea that Yahoo needed to be doing fewer things and doing them better, but if he had a real plan for accomplishing that, he never got around to articulating it.

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